Interview: Dennis Enarson

May, 11 2012by Nuno Oliveira

brandon means photo

Some people are destined for greatness, and others have to work for it. I believe that Dennis falls in the first category. He comes from humble beginnings with an awesome family that has always supported him. I have had the pleasure of watching the development of his riding; where he once was a trick ferret, he is now the smooth, stylish powerhouse that seems to effortlessly shred everything. You can see his passion for riding in his mind blowing video parts. He is a motivated dude who is down to earth and he is also always ready for the next adventure. You wont find him on Twitter, telling you his darkest secrets or mundane daily activities. But one this is for sure: he is just one of those people that is good at everything, be it riding, skateboarding, partying, or driving race cars. He even has super thick enamel on his teeth and therefor he’s not even prone to cavities. Basically he is a modern day superhero capable of things that really aren’t possible on a bike. BMX is lucky to have him.

– Gary Young

Dennis Enarson! How are you doing?

Hey man, I’m doing good. Just chillin hard on another perfect San Diego day. Got my dog Rudy hanging at my side, and I just got home from dropping everyone off at the airport to go ride in Chad’s contest at the Bakery. So the house is a little more quite than normal.

So, first things first. You recently broke your femur and had surgery for it. How exactly did you break it, and how has recovery been going?

I had just started really feeling back to my old self after almost being out for two months because of a bad shoulder separation. I planned on the next MARKIT edit being a really solid team mix at some cement parks, but since Christian Rigal, Mike Jonas, and myself all were all hurt on our recent trip to Austin Texas, we didn’t have anything we were stoked on. That day we all decided to go get some footage and finally wrap the edit up. The day was going great and everyone was killing it, stacking clips, and having a good time. I got a few things I was happy about for the web edit, so I decided to try something a little burlier for my MARKIT ZERO part. I wanted to suicide double truck this bowl to bowl gap I’ve been really feeling at one of my local parks. I trucked it and was getting hyped up to go for it and one of the park workers came out and told us the lights were bout to shut off so I knew I had to go for it. When I threw the bars and let my hands fly back the bike dropped out from under me and I just couldn’t correct it so I bailed but landed straight back on the frame in a really awkward way. It was one of those where I just couldn’t avoid it and all my momentum kept going, causing my femur to completely snap. I looked down at my mangled leg and knew instantly what happened haha. It wasn’t pretty.

Reports (twitter) stated that you were cracking jokes and taking it all in stride, which is a good thing considering that Femur breaks are supposedly really painful. Was it?

At first there were so many things rushing through my head. I got really bummed when I realized I was going to have to once again part ways with my bike, but I kept that to myself and tried to not make the situation worse by freaking out. It actually wasn’t too painful at all at first. When I first looked down you could see it was snapped right in the middle because it was just pointing a really awkward direction. Natural instincts just made me grab it and throw it back in place. Weirdly enough that didn’t hurt too bad either. I just chilled on my side waiting for the ambulance to get there making sure to keep it from moving at all. Once they got there they tried re-setting it but it wouldn’t budge at all, that’s when the pain kicked in pretty heavy! They loaded me with morphine because of how bad the pain got once they finally figured out a way to get me into the ambulance. The medics were really cool. Once I told them I turned 21 at midnight they let me get as much morphine as my brain could handle. Not many people get free drugs on there 21st, so that was pretty cool.

I can’t think of many places that would be better to chill and recover from an injury than San Diego, which is where you’re originally from and currently reside. How would you describe SD and what’s it like growing up there?

That is true, I’m really thankful that this whole thing did happen really close to my house, family and friends instead of some 3rd world country or something crazy. San Diego is such a good place to grow up. The list goes on and on on why it’s such a great place. Growing up here I didn’t even realize that a lot of places have weather that forces you to be stuck inside for months at a time. We are so spoiled with our weather year round. If it rains for more then a few days in a row people get so bummed, it’s hilarious!

San diego also made me love action sports more than anything. It’s so big here it’s hard not to love. You have so many opportunities, wether you want to ride dirt bikes, Skate, Surf, Snowboard, or BMX. You can do all of that conveniently living here. I think San diego made me the way I am. Just because I have always had so much to do I freak out now when I’m forced to sit around, or do something too slow paced for me. I can’t think of another place that I would have wanted to grow up.

To follow up with a cliche question, did you dabble in surfing and skating growing up in SD? I would think that it’s impossible not too.

I skated, rode dirt bikes and was riding all at the same time at one point. But slowly I started riding more and more, and skating and riding my 80 less and less. BMX just came off as so much fun to me and I couldn’t stop once I found a cool park to ride and a good crew to ride with. I never really got too into surfing. Surprisingly our water here in SD is really cold because all the currents flow south from the Northwest. I like the beach but you won’t find me too far out in the water. The ocean kinda freaks me out honestly. It’s really hard for me to get myself to go out too far when I can’t see what’s below me.

8 responses to “Interview: Dennis Enarson”

Talk about ignorant. Keep making money while thousands are enslaved with out proper pay or work conditions. Don’t try to start a union, you will get fired. Someday you will have to look at the world as the something bigger than yourself. Not everyone is blessed with a perfect life like you.

Dennis: The expresion “3rd World Country” is not a happy expression. I’m from Argentina, a country that you North Americans consider a “3rd World Country” and let me tell you that I’m a normal person but I know for sure that I have a much more better Healt Plan o Healt Insurance than you. As the previus person commented: Try to understand that the world is bigger than your lovely San Diego (That by the way is a Spanish name like many many other cities in the “3rd world countries”). One last thing I traveled a lot across Europe and some parts of Asia, where there are many many many others “3rd World Countries” and their Health Plans are also way better than yours. Greetings from the “3rd World”, Patricio.

Ps: Try to think as you ride. Trust me that you will be amazing at it too.
Ps 2: Ignoraus I totally agree with you.

Out of context! The question was about Nike’s involvement in BMX and not the way they treat their workers in places like China, which by the way can be said about many large corporations. Now I don t have the pleasure to know Dennis personally but he seems like a good kid who really want to promote BMX. He is successful in his BMX career and that’s great for him.
Chill man.

Patricio, I think you misunderstood what Dennis said. To me, he didn t seem to dis your country or any other one. Perhaps a bad choice of words but it appears he was just saying he was lucky to have the accident happen so close to his home where he can have the support of his family and friends. He also said he felt really lucky to live in SD. If he s happy to live there, that’s all that matters really…